What better gift for an RPG lover than a giant, knitted D20??
Total Project Time: 6 hours
I love dice. Every board gamer I know has a collection of dice ranging in type, size, and style. I feel like half of the dice that I’ve collected aren’t even useful… What do you mean I rolled a sheep??!?! I wanted a 6!!
For many gamers, the D20 is an iconic symbol as its used throughout the gamer and RPG hobby; from magic the gathering spin-downs to the classic D20 of Dungeons and Dragons. And this got me thinking, what if I made a really big one? Knitting is my comfort zone so a knitted D20 sounded like the perfect project.
Check out the Craft section of MCG for more fun patterns in strings and things or more unlimited ideas.
Supplies
To get the right size, shape, and look, I used the following materials;
- 1 Skein Yarn – Green (Or Color of Choice)
- 1 Skein Yarn – Black (Or Color of Choice)
- US Size 6 Needles (2)
- Embroidery Needle
- Foam Sheeting
- Packing Tape
- Polyester Fiberfill
- Hot Glue Gun + Glue
Each triangle (Or die face) is approximately 7 inches across the median (or center line) or the triangle.
Process
01
Knitting Triangles
The main process for this project is knitting triangles. So many triangles. Well… 20 triangles to be exact. I knitted these independently and this process honestly went pretty quick. But embroidering all of the triangles took quite some time. I had to embroider the numbers of the dice face onto each side. This was pretty confusing for me, so I ended up using a numbers cheat sheet guide which I’ve attached at the bottom of this post.
02
Sewing Everything Together
After each triangle was knitted and prepped, it was time to sew all of them together. I wanted this to be as accurate as possible so I reference a D20 as I was sewing this together. Everything had to be in the right place. The project quickly became a mess of strings flying everywhere but I was able to get it sorted. I didn’t attach the last triangle panel because I wanted to give the die structure before closing everything up.
03
Creating the Internal Bones
You can fill this piece with polyester fiberfill but that ends up making the project look like a giant ball. But I wanted to give the die that classic D20 structure! I ended up making a D20 out of foam board. Again, I needed to make 20 triangles but this time I made them out of foam. I used packing tape to tape the triangles together and built up the die. Before closing the die, I did fill it with polyester fiberfill just in case. I didn’t want my structure collapsing on me. Then I used the hot glue gun to fill in all of the edges.
04
Final Touches
The last thing I did was use the hot glue gun to attach a thin layer of polyester fiberfill to outside of the foam D20. The project is a kind of pillow. It should be kind of soft. Or at least, I wanted to try to make it a bit softer than just a foam base. I wrapped the knitted D20 around the foam core and sewed on the last triangle to finish the D20.
Reflections
I feel like I made a few mistakes on this one. This biggest mistake was making the foam core the same size as the knitted triangle – and then adding an extra layer on top of that. It made the knitted portion stretch out a bit more than I intended (but the project still looks good). Next time, I would either 1) not add the outside polyester layer or 2) make the foam core median a bit smaller to offset the increase inside of the fiberfill. But I really love how this one turned out. Using an embroidery stitch that mimicked knitting really made the project pop!
Lessons
Cutting Foam Boards
Cutting the foam board was a bit tricker that I anticipated because it was very strong. I needed a very sharp knife to cut it and I ended up using a razor blade. But my lines were all over the place. Why was it so hard to keep the blade running along the edge of the lines I had drawn out? To fix this issue, I ended up using a metal ruler as a guide for cutting. Cutting along the edge of the ruler allowed for a straight line and any mistakes were directed away from the piece that I was using. But remember, be careful when using sharp knives!
Downloadable Files
Quick Recipe
Knitted D20
Equipment
- 2 US Size 6 Needles
- Embroidery Needle
- Hot Glue Gun
Materials
- 1 Skein Green Yarn or desired base color
- 1 Skiein Black Yarn or desired number color
- 10 Foam Sheets
- Packing Tape
- Hot glue sticks
- Polyester Fiberfill
Instructions
Knitted Pattern
- CO 35 stitches
- Row One: K1, K2tog, knit until the last 3 stitches, K2tog, K1
- Row Two: Purl all stitches
- Repeat Rows One and Two until the project reaches 3 stitches across.
- Final Row: BO1, K2tog
Crafting Recipe
- Embroider each knitted triangle with a number from 1 through 20
- Sew knitted triangles together, leaving off one panel.
- Cut out 20 foam board triangles using 6.5 to 7 inches as the median (6.5if using polyester fiberfill on the outside, 7 inches is not)
- Using tape to tape triangles together – five triangles should share one point. Fill project with polyester fiberfill (or scraps) as desired
- Use hot glue to fill in seams between the triangles
- Use hot glue to add polyester fiberfill to the outside of the foam D20 if desired.
- Wrap knitted D20 around the foam D20 core.
- Sew on last knitted triangle panel
- Enjoy your giant knitted D20!